Glossary · UK
What is Fair Work Agency?
A single new enforcement body, created by the Employment Rights Act 2025, that brings together enforcement of the National Minimum Wage, statutory sick pay, holiday pay, and other core employment rights under one regulator.
Full Definition
The Fair Work Agency is a new state enforcement body established under the Employment Rights Act 2025, bringing together several previously separate and fragmented enforcement functions -- including National Minimum Wage enforcement (previously an HMRC function), the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority's licensing and enforcement role, and statutory sick pay enforcement -- into a single, better-resourced regulator with stronger investigative and enforcement powers. The stated aim is to make it easier for workers to have their rights enforced without having to bring an individual employment tribunal claim themselves, since many low-paid and vulnerable workers in practice never do so, and to give a single body the ability to see patterns of non-compliance across an employer's whole workforce rather than dealing with breaches piecemeal. The Fair Work Agency has powers to investigate suspected breaches, issue notices requiring employers to pay arrears (for example unpaid holiday pay or minimum wage shortfalls) and, in more serious cases, to bring civil proceedings or support criminal prosecutions, alongside continuing to "name and shame" employers who breach minimum wage law. It forms part of a wider package of Employment Rights Act 2025 reforms strengthening worker protections, including day-one unfair dismissal rights, restrictions on fire and rehire, and a strengthened right to guaranteed hours for zero-hours workers, all of which the Agency has a role in enforcing alongside existing employment tribunal routes that remain open to individual workers.